Eagles stall at home as Vick breaks hand

Monday

Sep 26, 2011 at 12:01 AM

?PHILADELPHIA — Everybody ran the ball for the Eagles in Sunday’s home opener against the Giants, even left tackle Jason Peters picked up seven yards on one play.

But when the Eagles really, really, really needed to run the ball, they couldn’t budge it an inch, and that is a big reason why coach Andy Reid’s team wakes this morning with a 1-2 record following a 29-16 loss to New York.

The loss ended the Eagles’ six-game winning streak against the Giants (2-1), dating back to 2008. The two teams will renew a rivalry that featured plenty of after-the-whistle pushing and shoving on Nov. 20 on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

The bad news may not stop with the loss.

Michael Vick won’t have to worry about concussion tests this week, but the Eagles’ suddenly brittle quarterback, unable to finish the last two games, will begin dealing with a broken right hand. It is Vick’s non-throwing hand, but his status for next week’s home game against the 49ers is uncertain.

“I don’t know if I’m going to play next week,” he said. “I don’t know anything right now but my hand is broken. We have to figure out right now what’s the next move.”

Vick maintained that the play he got hurt on should have been a late-hit personal foul against the Giants’ Chris Canty with just over six minutes to go in the third quarter. Mike Kafka replaced him, as he did last week, and threw an interception on his first throw, which the Giants converted into a game-sealing touchdown.

There had already been some thought that Vick was still suffering some effects from the concussion that ended his game in the third quarter last week in Atlanta since the Eagles used an uncharacteristically heavy run package of plays.

But Vick said that wasn’t the case.

“My head was fine,” said Vick, who was 16-for-23 passing for 176 yards and an interception before exiting. “I took some shots earlier and they didn’t affect me. I just tried to keep going. I was seeing things clearly, I felt good in the pocket, obviously, I wish we could’ve done better in the red zone but it’s all hindsight now. But yeah, I’m good.”

The run, run, run game plan seemed to work most of the time for the Eagles.

LeSean McCoy finished with 128 yards on 24 carries and scored the Eagles’ first touchdown that cut New York’s lead to 14-10, a lead whittled even further when Alex Henery drilled a 38-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter to send the teams into the locker room with the Giants leading 14-13.

As a team, the Eagles ended with 177 yards on the ground and a 4.4 yards per rush average. They ran the ball 40 times compared to just 30 passing attempts. Seven different players carried the ball for the Birds, including Peters, who scooped up a Vick fumble and chugged seven yards with it in the second quarter.

Despite a statistical advantage for Philadelphia in just about every category, it couldn’t seem to run the ball when it mattered most.

Trailing by a point, the Eagles drove to New York’s 2-yard line late in the third quarter and had first-and-goal from there. Fullback Owen Schmitt, who had four carries in the game, carried to the 2-inch line on first down.

“It looked like the ball, even before we snapped it, was already across the goal line,” said Schmitt.

Even tougher was when Vick was stuffed for no gain on a second-down QB sneak try then Schmitt was wrapped up in the backfield for a 1-yard loss on a third-down play up the middle.

Curiously, McCoy wasn’t used.

“I won’t say I was surprised, but I kind of thought I would get it,” said McCoy. “I was hot. I kind of thought I would get it. I’m confident in the call. If it’d worked out, who knows? The outcome could be different.”

“We’ve got to be able to man up and block the guys we’re going to block,” said Eagles guard Kyle DeVan. “When the coaches call a run play, we’ve got to be able to run the ball. Several times, we were running the ball all the way down the field and we couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. That’s on us — that’s not a coaching mistake.”

It was the Eagles’ fifth and final trip to the red zone, only one of those visits ended in a touchdown. One ended with a Vick interception on a catchable ball tipped by former Giant Steve Smith and there were three field goals, including the 21-yarder the Eagles had to settle for that gave them a 16-14 lead.

The goal-line stand felt like a win by the Giants.

“We were prepared for what the Eagles might do when they got down in the red zone,” said New York linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka. “On film it seemed that the Eagles had a lot of running formations in tight on the goal line. We were able to adjust to that and make some key plays.”

Another key play arrived on fourth-and-one for the Eagles at the Giants’ 43 early in the fourth quarter.

Even though the Giants stuffed the Birds on the goal line minutes earlier, Reid opted to go for it.

“I thought it was the right thing to do,” the coach said.

It may have been, but the play was blocked well and McCoy ended up losing three yards. Seven plays later, New York turned the good field position into six points then made a two-point conversion for a 22-16 lead with 8:15 to go.

“It was an aggressive move,” said Schmitt about the fourth-down run rather than punt. “I thought it was a great call. That’s a call, we get the first everyone’s like, great call. We’re being aggressive, that’s what Andy preaches. I’m 100 perent behind that all the way.”

Unfortunately for the Eagles, the Giants defense was 100 percent behind the Birds’ offensive line on running plays that mattered most.

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